The back of a mailer envelope which a Hayward woman was expecting to contain Superbowl tickets she wired $5,900 for. The envelope contained only a sheet of paper with the Superbowl logo and the message "Enjoy the game! Go Ravens! LOL" printed on it. (Courtesy photo)

Like many determined San Francisco 49ers faithful, a Hayward couple spent last week scouring the Web looking for Super Bowl tickets.

They found on Craigslist what they thought was a fair price: $5,900 for four seats, about double face value -- even if they'd have to send their money cross-country to a dreaded Baltimore Ravens' season ticket holder.

So after emailing, texting and talking with the seller on the phone for a week, they wired the money to his credit union. On Monday, the highly anticipated package arrived -- by FedEx.

Instead of Super Bowl tickets, inside was a picture of quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick and Joe Flacco with a message underneath that read: "Enjoy the game!!!! Go Ravens!!! LOL."

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"I'm just sick -- like, physically sick," said Sharon, a 49-year-old Hayward resident who did not want her last name used out of embarrassment. "All over the envelope it says 'go Ravens' -- even on the FedEx label."

Of course, police and officials warn fans of ticket scams all the time, but typically scammers disappear once they make off with the money. What's different here is that someone took the time to actually mail an overnight package, complete with a return address and phone number, and insert a special, anti-Niners note to rub it in.

It also highlights the desperation Niners fans have gone to in an attempt to score tickets to a game for which the average resale value is about $3,000 a ticket.

Sharon, a season-ticket holder at Candlestick Park for four years, and her boyfriend have bought seats in the new Santa Clara stadium and were planning to go to the Super Bowl in New Orleans with two other family members. They still plan on going -- even if it means watching the game at a bar on Bourbon Street.

The scam artist told the couple he was a corporate tax attorney living in Boca Raton, Fla., and his wife was eight months pregnant, which was why they couldn't go to the game themselves.

"For a week I was on the phone with this guy," Sharon said. "That's the only reason why we" trusted him.

No one answered the phone at the number listed on the all-CAPS, exclamation point-heavy Craiglist ad, which has since been taken down. Right underneath the ad, a Craigslist warning says: "Do NOT wire funds."

Sharon, who's yet to report the crime to the police, is still excited for the game.

"Do we want to let this affect our celebration of our team going to the Super Bowl?" she said. "We need to get past that."